Richard Bloom and Michael Weinstein with the Madison Hotel on skid row (Credit: Google Maps, AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

Despite a failed attempt in February, the fight to repeal the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act is on — and Los Angeles voters may have the final say.

ACCE Action, Eviction Defense Network and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the latter of which is led by outspoken activist Michael Weinstein, filed a proposed ballot initiative to expand the state’s rent control laws, Curbed reported. That involves the repeal of the polarizing Costa Hawkins act.

The initiative will require 365,880 valid voter signatures to get on the November 2018 ballot.

Assemblyman Richard Bloom of Santa Monica tried to repeal the 1995 law in February, but put the bill on hold after receiving pushback from landlords and lobbyists. Instead, he chose to “park it in a committee” and see “what kind of compromise we can come up with,” according to Guy Strahl, a legislative director for Bloom who oversaw the bill.

Under current legislation, only units built prior to October 1978 can qualify for rent control.

Single-family houses, duplexes and condos can’t qualify, and landlords can also reset the cost of a unit once a tenant voluntarily moves out. That key word – “voluntarily” – is often a gray area as landlords seek to rid themselves of rent controlled tenants, and a more organized tenants’ rights movement forms in response.

Opponents of the repeal argue that it will only exacerbate the housing shortage by deterring new construction.

The AHF recently launched a new division focused on rent control after it failed to pass Measure S. Dubbed “Healthy Housing Foundation,” the entity already has plans to renovate and rent out Madison Hotel on Skid Row. [Curbed] – Natalie Hoberman

Harvey Weinstein (Credit: Getty Images)

From TRD New York: Harvey Weinstein quietly paid off accusers for decades, successfully silencing allegations of sexual assault and harassment. That all changed earlier this month when the New York Times published an explosive investigation into previously undisclosed allegations.

The deluge of accusations that followed the Times report and the emergence of similar stories in other industries has The Real Deal wondering: Who is real estate’s Harvey Weinstein?

The issues highlighted by Weinstein’s fall aren’t just endemic to Hollywood. Real estate is an industry traditionally populated by powerful men — and has a history of perpetuating office cultures that can be unwelcoming to women and minorities.

Have you experienced or witnessed sexual assault or harassment in your office, an industry event or elsewhere? Do you know of someone in the industry with a history of overstepping boundaries? Is there someone working in the industry who has successfully quashed allegations (either through a court settlement or other means)? Is there behavior among industry professionals that you think needs to be discussed?

We want to hear your stories.

Please send tips to:

tips@therealdeal.com, with the subject line “Harvey Weinstein.”

Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, all requests to remain anonymous will be honored. Please specify whether you’d like to remain anonymous in your message.

If privacy is a concern, you can also send anonymous tips through Signal or WhatsApp to: 973-534-4300.

Click here to download Signal. Click here to download WhatsApp.

From left: James Kuhn, Howard Lutnick, Barry Gosin (Credit: Newmark, BGC Partners)

Newmark Group filed for a $100 million initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The entity, which is being spun off from its parent company, Howard Lutnick’s BGC Partners, will include the commercial brokerage Newmark Knight Frank and the mortgage firm Berkeley Point.

Newmark plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol NMRK. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank and Cantor Fitzgerald are affiliates on the deal.
The New York-based Newmark Group generated revenues of $1.5 billion for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2017, according to its registration statement.

BGC acquired Berkeley Point in July for $875 million to increase the scale of Newmark as the IPO neared. When it acquired the brokerage, then known as Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, in 2011, Lutnick described the move as a “dramatic new footprint in commercial real estate by BGC.”

Last year, NKF’s president Jimmy Kuhn said the brokerage quadrupled its revenue since it was acquired by BGC, and talked up brand-name poaches such as Kevin Shannon, a CBRE alum who is one of the top investment sales brokers on the West Coast, and Robert Griffin, who enjoys a similar reputation in New England.

Earlier this month, Jeff Gural stepped down as the chairman of NKF as part of a larger effort to differentiate the Gural family’s business from the brokerage prior to the IPO.

Serena Williams and the property at 1201 Stone Canyon Road (Credit: Getty, Redfin, MLS)

One 23-time Grand Slam singles title winner is hoping for another win.

Tennis pro Serena Williams listed her six-bedroom home on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air for $12 million, Variety reported.

Built in 1935, the 6,100-square-foot residence holds seven bathrooms, a private salon, a bar, a study lounge and manicured gardens. A private hiking trail and swimming pool complete the 2.7-acre property.

Williams purchased the Bel Air home in 2006 for $6.6 million, records show.

Gregory Piechota of Keller Williams has the listing.

The tennis star, who gave birth to her first child in September, owns an impressive real estate portfolio — fit to house all her trophies. Williams also owns an apartment in Paris, an estate in the Bears Club in Jupiter, Fla., and a 5,800-square-foot home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. [Variety] – Natalie Hoberman

From left: Richard Smith, Kathy Korte, Ryan Schneider and Pam Liebman

From TRD New York: Realogy Corp. — the parent company of the Corcoran Group, Citi Habitats and Sotheby’s International Realty — has tapped a banking executive with a track record of using data and technology to drive business as its new CEO.

Ryan Schneider, an executive at Capital One, will succeed longtime chief executive Richard Smith, who has steered the New Jersey-based real estate conglomerate for 21 years. Smith and Realogy disclosed the hunt for a successor earlier this year in regulatory filings. Schneider, who takes the job amid increasing competition in the brokerage world, will assume the CEO post on Dec. 31.

Schneider got his start at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., and joined Capital One in 2002. From 2007 to 2016, he was president of its Card division, where he oversaw 10,000 employees and grew net income to more than $2 billion a year.

In a statement, Michael Williams, Realogy’s lead independent director, cited Schneider’s experience utilizing “Big Data, rigorous analytics and new technology” to drive results. Williams, a former president and CEO of Fannie Mae, will also succeed Smith as Realogy’s chairman of the board.

In March, Realogy’s board offered Smith a two-year contract while it formalized a succession plan for the company, a process he was part of.  Smith was tapped as the corporation’s CEO after leading Cendant Corp.’s real estate division, which was spun off to create Realogy. Analysts have credited him with getting Realogy’s business back on track and paying down debt following its IPO in 2012. He also steered Realogy through the worst housing crisis in recent history. Last year, the company generated $5.8 billion in revenue, up 2 percent from 2015.

As part of Realogy’s succession plan, the company created a president and COO role to ensure a “deep bench of management talent,” a spokesperson told The Real Deal earlier this year.

Corcoran Group CEO Pam Liebman’s track record has fueled speculation that she could be tapped for a larger role within the company’s NRT division, which includes Corcoran, Citi Habitats and Sotheby’s International Realty. “She’s capable of running something much larger,” Smith told TRD last year. “Someday, she could run NRT.”

The CalEdison Downtown Los Angeles (Credit: The CalEdison)

Jerde Partnership is moving its global headquarters to the CalEdison Building in Downtown Los Angeles — formerly known as “One Bunker Hill” — after nearly three decades spent on the sandy beaches of Venice.

The architecture firm will move in February from its current home at 913 Ocean Front Walk to a full 20,000-square-foot floor at the former headquarters of Southern California Edison Co., owned by Nelson and Chris Rising’s Rising Realty Partners and Lionstone Investments, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Venice has recently seen rents skyrocket and traffic increase as Silicon Beach companies like Snap have spread out in the area. Jerde said the move is likely to ease commuting burdens for many of its employees and help recruit new staff who won’t have to face the fear of Venice’s high housing costs.

“Moving to Downtown Los Angeles from Venice Beach reestablishes our company as a Los Angeles architectural firm,” Paul Martinkovic, an executive of Jerde, said in a company statement. “In Downtown, we have 360 degrees of quality of life, better commutes and accessibility to more affordable housing for our existing employees.”

Carle Pierose and Rob Erickson of Industry Partners represented Rising in the lease. Jennifer Frisk and David Kluth of Newmark Knight Frank represented JERDE.

Jerde designed the Bellagio Las Vegas resort, Universal CityWalk and Santa Monica Place, among others. Approximately 70 employees will move to its new headquarters.

CalEdison, located at 601 W. Fifth Street at the corner of Grand Avenue, spans 277,000 square feet across 14 floors. Other tenants at the property include Akerman LLP, General Growth Properties, Narrative Capital and Practice Aligned Resources. There is a new Sweetgreen at street level. [LAT] – Natalie Hoberman

Pacific Center and Related Fund Management managing principal Justin E Metz (Credit: Google Maps)

Related Fund Management, a subsidiary of the Related Companies, acquired a 306,700-square-foot office building, known as the Pacific Center, at 21250 Hawthorne Boulevard, The Real Deal has learned.

The New York-based company paid $106 million to Stream Realty Partners for the building, according to a source familiar with the deal. Stream Realty purchased the site in 2015 for $67.8 million, records show.

Pacific Center, located across the Del Amo Fashion Center at the intersection of Hawthorne and Torrance boulevards, recently underwent a $500 million renovation. The eight-story office complex is 91 percent leased to majority financial tenants including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.

Ryan Gallagher and Andrew Harper of HFF brokered the deal.

Related plans to reposition the building to provide a highly amenitized office environment, equipped with a fitness center and on-site café, according to Jason W. Morrow, a senior vice president with the firm.

Parent company Related and its Golden State arm, Related California, own major residential projects scattered around the state, including the luxury condo tower The Century in Century City and the apartment complex the Paramount in San Francisco. Its fund management platform focuses on distressed real estate opportunities, origination and acquisition of debt and multi-family housing opportunities, according to its website.

The seller, Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners, currently leases or manages over 130 million square feet across the nation, according to a company release. The company holds offices in San Diego and Orange County. Stream Realty could not be reached for comment.

South Bay’s Torrance has been home to a flurry of recent transactions, involving Sares Regis’ $270 million acquisition of the former Toyota campus and Continental Development’s $49 million purchase of Madrona Business Campus.

From left: Airbnb Founders Nathan Blecharczyk, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky (Credit: Getty Images)

From TRD New York: Opponents of Airbnb have long claimed that the home-sharing service pushes up rents and worsens housing affordability in New York City.  Now, a new study from the University of California Los Angeles has found that is actually the case nationally.

The paper, which is yet to be published, found that a 10 percent increase in Airbnb listings can create an average 0.39 percent increase in rents and an average 0.64 percent increase in home prices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The authors of the paper looked at rents and home prices in 100 of the biggest metropolitan areas across the country between 2012 and 2016, according to the newspaper.

The increases may be small, but in those years, the rents went up by an approximate average of 2.2 percent annually, according to Edward Kung, an author on the paper and an assistant professor of economics at UCLA.

“We hypothesize Airbnb takes supply out of the long-term rental market, which caters to residents looking to rent permanent homes, and reallocates it to the short-term rental market,” Kung told the Journal. “Airbnb enables homeowners to generate income from their property, making their homes even more valuable.”

In New York City, the Office of Special Enforcement issued 1,026 short-term-rental violations during the first six months of 2017 compared to 693 in 2016, a 32 percent increase. However, use of the site is thriving in places like Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant. [WSJ] — Miriam Hall

Three finalists have been chosen to redevelop the city-owned property next to Angels Flight – and their high-rise plans couldn’t be more different.

The finalists are: Lowe Enterprises with Gensler; Onni and Natoma Architects; and MacFarlane Partners, The Peebles Corporation, Claridge Properties and Handel Architects.

Each developer/architect team hopes to transform the city-owned property next to Angels Flight, extending from Hill and Fourth streets up to Olive. Officials called for a mixed-use development that would incorporate the Angels Flight funicular and the Pershing Square Metro.

Developer Lowe Enterprise, paired with Cisneros Miramontes, Gensler and RELM Studios, proposed a vertical campus for UCLA on the site. The tower would hold 600,000 square feet for classroom and office space, 655 housing units for faculty and students, 200,000 square feet of public programming space and nearly one acre of private open space. Although the school is not allowed to publicly endorse it, UCLA is likely to sign on to project, according to Lowe.

Prominent Downtown developer Onni and Natoma Architects set forward their plans to build two high-rise towers (400 and 800 feet tall) that would include 230 hotel rooms, 120 condos, 650 apartments, an elementary school, a museum and grocery store. A public square with a food court and retail would shape up over the Pershing Square station.

Claridge Properties, MacFarlane Partners,The Peebles Corporation and Handel Architects are also proposing a two-tower project — 24 and 88 stories each — containing 405 apartments, 240 condos, 500 SLS and Mondrian hotel rooms, an elementary school and 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. An Olin-designed “Angels Terrace” would include a 25,000-square-foot plaza at the center.

The winning proposal will be selected in November. [Curbed] – Natalie Hoberman

The 660-acre swath of land given the informal name The Cornfield covers the northern section of Chinatown, the southern section of Lincoln Heights and the eastern portion of Solano Canyon. I

From the latest issue: For too long, the area known as the Cornfield has been considered no man’s land.

The area, which straddles the up-and- coming neighborhoods of Chinatown and Lincoln Heights, has historically been home to a variety of industrial uses as well as freight rail yards, cutting potentially vibrant sections of the city off from one another and making development a diffiult, if not impossible, prospect.

But now, thanks to factors including the recent transformation of a 32-acre former brownfield site into a park, zoning changes over the past few years designed to promote development in the area, and a host of buzzy projects opening soon, the Cornfield could be poised to become Los Angeles’ next hot area for development.

First, the history

There is no official neighborhood in Los Angeles called the Cornfield. Rather, the 660-acre swath of land given the informal name covers the northern section of Chinatown, the southern section of Lincoln Heights and the eastern portion of  Solano Canyon — all of which are largely working-class, immigrant neighborhoods.

At the heart of the Cornfield sits a former brownfield site which, according to a KCET history of the land, used to be part of a farming operation, likely giving the parcel, and the area, their names.

In the late 19th century, the site served as a freight rail yard. However, the Southern Pacific railroad moved those operations to the Inland Empire in the early 1900s, leaving behind the large undeveloped property just outside of Downtown Los Angeles.

In the late 1990s, the cleared site became the center of a heated battle between developer Majestic Realty, which had planned the $80 million River Station Business Park at the site, and community and environmental activists, who had a different vision for the property.

Majestic promised the four-building complex would bring 1,000 new jobs to the working class community and had the backing of then-Mayor Richard Riordan. However, the alliance of activists was able to drum up support for the purchase of the land and eventually sued successfully to hold up the development. Subsequent ballot measures approved bond funding for the purchase and restoration of the site.

The oft-delayed project — which was famously kept in the public’s conscience by Lauren Bon’s 2005 art installation “Not a Cornfield,” which transformed the brownfield into an actual cornfield for an agricultural cycle — wrapped this spring when the Los Angeles State Historic Park opened in April. The $20 million project includes picnic areas and 1,500 trees, breathing new life into a long-overlooked tract of land.

Creation of the CASP

Recognizing the value of the land surrounding the Cornfield, the city several years ago began looking at ways to encourage development in the area. The result of that process was the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan (CASP), a planning document approved in 2013 that set guidelines for 660 acres of land in Chinatown and Lincoln Heights. The CASP, which runs through 2035, divides parcels into three different uses — hybrid industrial, residential multifamily and commercial manufacturing — while also setting aside some land for open space. Developers are granted an easier approval process so long as the uses comply and they meet certain requirements, such as floor-to-area ratio standards.

Most notably, the plan also represented an anomaly for city planning documents: It was the first and is still the only one of its kind to not include any parking requirements, eliminating the impact of ordinances that developers have loudly rallied against.

The idea was to promote smaller-scale, pedestrian- and bicyclist-friendly projects near the Cornfield, said Claire Bowin, a senior planner in the Los Angeles City Planning Department.

“It was really seen as an opportunity for the city to reshape what urban development meant in the 21st century,” Bowin said. “For us — and by us, I mean this global greater community that came together — it was saying, ‘Let’s have this be a model for how we can get around in a neighborhood without necessarily being so reliant on a car.’”

What’s already there

For all the hope, hype and optimism in the area, only a handful of projects have come online — which Bowin said has been “disappointing.”

“[The plan has] been heralded, which has been nice, and we’ve seen a lot of attention from developers exploring projects … But it hasn’t generated a huge groundswell of ground-up construction,” she said.

An early CASP success story is L.A. Prep, a culinary incubator and training site that features 50 wholesale kitchens in a 36,000-square-foot industrial space in Lincoln Heights, which opened in 2015. Mott Smith, co-founder and principal of Civic Enterprise — a partner in the project  — said that the elimination of parking requirements and affordable industrial land prices were key draws to the property.

Smith said that the Cornfield area sits in “a fabulous location, ” but he worries the plan may be too prescriptive for many developers.

(Click to enlarge)

“We keep on forgetting in L.A. what plans actually do,” he said. “The main thing they do is they say you cannot build unless you fit inside a specific envelope.”

Smith said that many of the existing properties may have more value in their current use as industrial space — Los Angeles has one of the lowest industrial vacancy rates in the country, at 2.2 percent according to Colliers International’s second-quarter report — and developers are likely reluctant to purchase the sites for redevelopment given that there is a limit to what can be built there.

“The problem is this isn’t a farm somewhere at the edge of Bakersfield that’s being turned into a subdivision for the very first time,” he said. “This is an existing neighborhood with existing uses that are, frankly, quite valuable.” Industrial rents averaged $0.67 per square foot a month in the second quarter, according to Colliers.

Despite the slow start for development in the 660 acres identified in the city’s plan, there has been a slew of activity nearby — particularly at the northern end of Chinatown.

Among the first high-profile projects in the neighborhood is Blossom Plaza, a $100 million development that sits just outside the designated Cornfield area at the southern tip of the park. Developed by Forest City Realty Trust, the mixed-use building opened in mid-2016 and includes 237 residential units and 19,000 square feet of commercial space.

According to Lorena Tomb, CEO of Urbanlime, the company handling commercial leasing for the project, “a lot of people were initially concerned with being the first ones to get into that part of Chinatown.” However, she said a tipping point came within the past few years as more bars and restaurants announced interest in the area and the State Historic Park and Gold Line, which has a stop adjacent to Blossom Plaza, opened.

“I think that residents and the businesses that have started looking at Chinatown might’ve considered that market because it was not as expensive initially — the rents were still relatively affordable,” Tomb said. “I think what puts it on the map now is the completion of the [State Historic Park].”

Those factors have helped her attract businesses to Blossom Plaza. Already nearly completely leased on the residential side — with mostly younger people of various ethnic backgrounds moving in, Tomb said — the project currently has about 40 percent of its retail space open.

Tomb said that much of that remaining space is under negotiation. The project recently nabbed the owners of Downtown L.A. watering hole Ham and Eggs. They’ll open a wine bar in Blossom Plaza called L.A. Wine Co-op, while another bar operator (who wished to remain anonymous) will open “a really unique concept” that includes entertainment at the site, Tomb said.

Urbanlime also recently secured the operators for the project’s food hall, Potluck. They include a matcha restaurant named Young Bud, a mochi and Hawaiian shaved ice spot named Chichi Dang and a restaurant named Shrimp Daddy.

“We’ve seen things evolve over the past few years,” she said.

Next door to Blossom Plaza, Lincoln Property Co. and S&R Properties — both of which did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment for this article — are deep into a redevelopment of the five-building former Capitol Milling Company complex at 1231 North Spring Street. The companies, which are also partnered on a planned 920-unit mixed-use project at 1251 North Spring Street, are reportedly planning to put a microbrewery, restaurants and offices in 50,000 square feet at the Capitol Milling site.

The companies told The Real Deal in 2016 that they expect the surrounding area to be the “next district of DTLA to really see revitalization.”

“We see a great opportunity to … create enhancements for the surrounding community to enjoy — especially given its close proximity to Metro’s Chinatown station,” Rob Kane, head of Lincoln’s L.A. region, said at the time.

Build it and they will come

As for the developers exploring projects in the area covered by the CASP zoning, there certainly seem to be a lot of them.

Recently announced plans for several New York City mainstays to open Los Angeles locations in the Cornfield, in particular, highlight the evolving hipster nature of the area. Baby’s All Right, the Brooklyn music venue, and renowned chef David Chang, founder of Momofuku, announced separate plans this summer to open sites in the Cornfield area on Naud Street. The two will join New York’s famed Apotheke Cocktail Bar, which said in March it would open a spot at 1728 North Spring Street.

BLVD745, the boutique hotel developer behind the Ace Hotel and the Soho  Warehouse in Downtown Los Angeles, announced this year that the Cornfield area would serve as one of two sites for its new “budget” concept: Roadhouse & Junction. Founder Jon Blanchard told TRD this year that the company planned to purchase a $27 million property near the State Historic Park and spend an additional $18 million to build a 130-room hotel on the site.

Calling the surrounding area a “thriving” community, Blanchard said that the zoning created by the CASP was a draw for him and his partners and that he expects the area to transform as a result.

“You will start seeing big movement with a tremendous amount of development in that area,” he said.

The city has also begun soliciting proposals for one of the Cornfield area’s historic landmarks: the five-story, 230,000-square-foot Lincoln Heights Jail. There are currently three finalists for the project — CIM, Lincoln Property Co. and the nonprofit WORKS — all of which presented their plans before a community meeting in August.

(Click to enlarge)

“If the project happens the way I think it will, that could be an amazing catalyst for change over there,” said Bowin.

And interest remains strong just outside the designated Cornfield area: Aside from the aforementioned mixed-use project planned by Lincoln Property Co. and S&R, there’s also the 25,700-square-foot headquarters of architecture firm Johnson Fain, which sits on the western edge of the park and was put up for sale by the company in August.

In 2016, Johnson Fain filed plans with the city to raze its one-story building and replace it with a 124-residence project that would include 8,691 square feet of ground-floor retail and office space. However, in August the company shifted gears, placing the fully entitled 1-acre property on the market. The project’s listing agent, CBRE’s Brad McCarthy, did not return emails requesting comment, but told TRD previously that the headquarters is currently listed as either a redevelopment or an “as is” office for possible office investors or users.

Developer Izek Shomof, one of the key figures in the redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles over the last decade, is also betting big on the success of the area just south of the State Historic Park. Shomof’s Pacific Investment Group is planning a 122-unit, seven-story project on a half-acre lot at 211 West Alpine Street in Chinatown. The project is fully entitled, and architectural plans are currently being finalized, he said in an interview.

Shomof added that he views that section of the city as an extension of DTLA, and the increase in activity in the northern Chinatown and Cornfield area was a key draw.

“I personally believe that because of the demand that’s here in Downtown, it’s basically spilled over to the Chinatown area,” Shomof said. “There’s a huge demand. We have … many, many lofts in Downtown, and we are running at [near] 100 percent occupancy.”

Urbanlime’s Tomb said that she has recently spoken with developers interested in the area, including one from Vancouver. “We’re seeing foreign investors looking at this market as a potential for development,” she said.

What else could help the Cornfield grow

While the CASP has yet to spur all the development she had hoped it would, Bowin remains optimistic about the prospects for the area. She’s encouraged by the proposed projects, and she thinks that there could be even more interest in the Cornfield once the well of “tried and true” markets like Koreatown and the Arts District have dried up.

“Maybe once those areas get built out or the land prices get so obscene there, more people focus their attention on the [Cornfield],” Bowin said.

She’s also hopeful that a new wave of development will follow in the wake of the recently opened State Historic Park and another key public investment in the area: the restoration of the Los Angeles River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to begin work on the latter this fall. The project will return 11 miles of the concrete water channel to a more natural state.

Smith, who was part of the L.A. Prep project, agreed that the river “is the single most important investment that could impact activity in the Cornfield.” But he also said some smaller investments could go a long way in the area. Namely, he thinks improvements to make the neighborhoods more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly are essential.

“Those actually make a really big difference,” Smith said. “The city’s general approach has been to try to get a developer excited and make the developer do all of those things. It’s not going to work like that in a place like the Cornfield.”

Avanti in Calabasas with Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner (Credit: The New Home Company, Getty Images)

The reigning queens of Calabasas aren’t giving up their thrones just yet.

Kris Jenner and her daughter, Kim Kardashian West, snagged a total of three condominiums at Avanti in Calabasas, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Jenner paid $1.5 million and $1.65 million for two separate condos, while daughter Kardashian West paid $1.6 million for her own unit.

Marketing materials for the newly built New Home Company-developed community show units range from 2,100 – 2,660 square feet with either two to three bedrooms. The Ribert Hidey Architects-designed units feature Italian, contemporary interiors.

Amenities at the community include a club room, fitness center, swimming pool, spa and sun deck. A SoulCycle and Pressed Juicery are in the retail portion of the complex.

The recent shopping spree differs sharply from the expansive spaces the Kardashian Klan is used to purchasing. Sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner have built an impressive real estate portfolio in the past year, owning and flipping several properties in Los Angeles, while tabloid couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West sold a Bel Air manse for roughly $18 million last year. [LAT] – Natalie Hoberman

From TRD New York: People are increasingly viewing renting as more affordable than buying a home, a survey from Freddie Mac has found.

Rents in cities across the country as not rising as much as before, thanks to a major spike in construction over the past few years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Home prices, on the other hand, keep going up.

Freddie Mac’s survey, expected to be released tomorrow, found that around 76 percent of renters in August believe renting is a more affordable option than buying. That’s up from around 65 percent of renters in September 2016, according to the Journal.

“We talk virtually every day about how renting is becoming less and less affordable. I think the answer is just that housing is becoming less and less affordable and renting is the more affordable of the two,” David Brickman, executive vice president and head of Freddie Mac Multifamily, told the Journal.

Nearly a quarter of the renters surveyed said flexibility was the reason they chose to rent. In Manhattan last month, the median net effective rent slipped slightly to hit $3,334. Meanwhile, the median sales price of a Manhattan co-op just reached a 28-year high in the third quarter of the year to reach $850,000. The median sale price of a condominium in Manhattan increased 6.3 percent from last year to hit $1.7 million. [WSJ] — Miriam Hall

Jeff Weller and the property at 4355 Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks (Credit: LinkedIn)

In our new Valley Watch series, we keep track of activity in the San Fernando Valley.

Lion Real Estate purchased a three-property apartment building portfolio from a private investor in an off-market transaction worth $41.6 million, The Real Deal has learned. The investor developed the San Fernando Valley properties over 40 years ago.

The properties are: the 105-unit building 4355 Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, 48-unit 7317 Haskell Avenue and 54-unit 6535 Haskell Avenue in Van Nuys.

Lion plans to renovate the exterior of the properties, as well as units, and improve the common area amenities, according to a company statement.

Michael Koshet of LA Commercial Agency represented the buyer and the seller in the transaction.

Lion Real Estate Group, led by Jeff Weller and Mory Barak, focuses on value add acquisitions including opportunistic multifamily and creative offices properties in Southern California and Nashville. The company sold two warehouses in the Arts District to Tishman Speyer last year, just a short while after it acquired a 112-unit complex in Tarzana for $19 million.

The San Fernando Valley has been making headlines recently. Facebook leased an 80,000 square foot lease in a Northridge creative office complex, The Real Deal reported earlier this month. The residential side is keeping up, too. Just down the street, developer Art Simonian is planning 364 new apartments. More commercial brokerages are getting into the area, once seen as a Class B market, as TRD explored in its October print issue.

Barry Gosin (Credit: Getty Images)

From TRD New York: Newmark Knight Frank CEO Barry Gosin earned nearly $30 million in 2015, though the vast majority was paid as stock in an advance against future incentive payments, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show.

Gosin, who’s served as CEO of the brokerage since 1979, received a base salary of $475,000 in 2015, as well as a bonus of $2.3 million and $2.59 million worth of commissions, according to the prospectus Newmark filed Monday ahead of its planned initial public offering.

The 67-year-old brokerage chief also received a one-time, $24 million grant as an advance on payments that will be drawn down over the following years, filings show.

The grant, along with a similar one made the previous year, was “based on Mr. Gosin’s estimated target bonus in future years,” the prospectus explained.

Absent a grant bonus in 2016, Gosin’s compensation dropped to a little more than $989,000 for the year, roughly half of which was earned on commissions. Gosin couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

In a spinoff from Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick’s BGC Partners, Newmark filed initial paperwork for an IPO that looks to raise $100 million.

Gosin, the filings show, is under a one-year contract expiring next October that renews unless terminated 90 days in advance. He’s subject to a 24-month noncompete agreement, during which time Newmark would be required to pay him up to $2 million.

Paul Manafort (Credit: Getty Images)

One day before reports emerged that he is facing another money laundering probe, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was dealt a separate blow in bankruptcy court.

Manafort and his family stand to lose the more than $4 million they invested in Los Angeles real estate, Bloomberg reported.

“Paul will likely lose his entire investment in these properties, if they go to auction and he is not the high bidder,” said Manafort’s attorney, Matthew Browndorf.

After a Monday hearing, Browndorf said his client couldn’t put together financing in time to save the developments, which the judge scheduled to be sold at a Dec. 13 auction.

Between 2014 and 2016, Manafort and his family lent money to four LLC’s run by Jeffrey Yohai, a spec house developer and the ex-husband of Manafort’s daughter Jessica. Yohai filed for bankruptcy protection for the entities last year, and the F.B.I. began examining the transactions — after Yohai was accused in a lawsuit of defrauding investors.

Manafort had contributed $2.7 million to a home at 779 Stradella Road in Bel Air, which a Yohai-controlled LLC purchased for $8.5 million, records show. The other properties involved in the bankruptcy proceedings are 1550 Blue Jay Way in the Bird Streets and 2541 and 2521 Nottingham Avenue near Griffith Park.

Yohai was planned to build a $30 million spec mansion on the site of the Blue Jay Way home, which he acquired for $7.5 million, according to court records. The actor Dustin Hoffman and his son invested $3 million in that project, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The real estate saga pales in comparison to Manafort’s larger struggles. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is investigating possible money laundering by Manafort. The investigation is being conducted in collaboration with a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into allegations of collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials to influence the 2016 presidential election. [Bloomberg] – Hannah Miet

CoStar’s CEO Andrew Florance and Xceligent’s former CEO Doug Curry

From TRD New York: Barely two hours after news of Xceligent CEO Doug Curry’s firing broke Tuesday evening, rival CoStar sent out an email to its customers touting the decision as a moral victory and alleging that he was fired because of CoStar’s accusations in court.

“It seems obvious that Xceligent’s board did not find Doug’s denials credible,” CoStar wrote, without providing evidence.

CoStar, the leading provider of commercial property and leasing data, sued its rival Xceligent in December, alleging that it systematically stole its data. On Friday it notched a major victory, when an Xceligent contractor told a judge that it was directed to scrape CoStar’s database. Xceligent alleges that CoStar pressured the contractor to make its statement with the threat of lawsuits.

On Monday evening Xceligent’s owner, the British media company Daily Mail and General Trust, told Curry that he would be fired along with his wife Erin, the firm’s chief people officer.

Sources close to Xceligent insist that the firing had nothing to do with the lawsuit, but CoStar drew a different conclusion in its email. The firm has been waging an at times dirty PR war against its rival. Tapping into nativist themes, it noted in another Monday email to customers that Xceligent is a “foreign owned company” and accused it of running a “research sweatshop in the Philippines jungle.”

Curry hit back in June, filing an antitrust lawsuit against CoStar. “We gladly take up this fight and we will not rest until the industry has clear safeguards against an obvious abuse of power by CoStar,” he said in a statement at the time. Several other smaller data companies have accused CoStar of using lawsuits to stifle competition. Curry, who co-founded the company in the late 1990s, sold the lawsuit as a battle on behalf of the entire real estate data industry, branding CoStar a “decades-long monopoly.”

His successor Frank Anton sounds far less enthusiastic about the legal fight. “I don’t have a measure of passion,” he told Bisnow Monday. “If there was a personal feud between Doug and (CoStar CEO Andrew Florance), I’m not part of that, I don’t know much

about it and I don’t think it’s terribly relevant.”

Asked if he thinks CoStar is a monopoly, he took a stark departure from his predecessor’s rhetoric. “You’re really not allowed to be a monopoly in the United States,” he claimed.

Natasha Beddingfield and her Hollywood Hills home (Credit: Getty Images)

Who says musicians can’t be landlords?

Singer Natasha Bedingfield and her husband, Matt Robinson, are seeking a renter for their 3,300-square-foot home atop the Hollywood Hills, Variety reported. The couple is listed at $14,500 per month.

The two-story home has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, a wine cellar and an eat-in kitchen. Outside, a landscaped backyard and dining terrace complete the outside.

The couple purchased the home in 2015 for $1.65 million, records show. Inzio Property Management and Leasing has the rental.

The singer, most famous for “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine,” also owns a 4,800-square-foot property in Los Feliz. She’s listing that at $4.5 million. [Variety] – Natalie Hoberman

Steven Schwarzman (credit: Natalie White)

From TRD New York: The Blackstone Group wants to double its assets under management to around $800 billion in the coming five years, according to its CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

“We have internal targets, plans, aspirations to basically double where we are,” he told Bloomberg. As of late September, the private equity firm had $387 billion in assets under management, more than double the amount it oversaw five years ago.

Real estate is the company’s largest business line, with $111.3 billion in assets under management.

On a call last week, Blackstone’s president Tony James said he still sees plenty of opportunities in real estate, even if the market has slowed down.

“Real estate is a gargantuan market,” he said during the company’s quarterly earnings media call Thursday. “There are always undermanaged assets.”

The second-biggest U.S. private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, has $232 billion in assets, Bloomberg reported. [Bloomberg] — Konrad Putzier

A Podshare location, with founder Elvina Beck (Podshare Instagram, elvinabeck.com)

Affordability isn’t exactly L.A.’s strong suit — but one hospitality startup offers a short-term option.

For $50 a night, “Podestrians” can live in so-called pods (upgraded bunk beds that have built-in televisions with Netflix and Hulu hooked up) that span nearly 50 square foot of space inside of large common areas. That equates to $1 a square foot.

Elvina Beck, creator of a unique co-living enterprise known as Podshare, sat down with AC Martin’s Christopher Martin (who had a major hand in designing the behemoth Wilshire Grand) and Brian De Lowe, president and co-founder of Proper Hospitality, at the Urban Land Institute’s fall meeting at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Tuesday to discuss their two very different paths towards long-term-stay hospitality.

In a panel called “Hospitality Trends – The Colliding Worlds of Housing and Hotels,” De Lowe presented his recent project, the Hollywood Proper, a luxury 22-story tower offering long-term-stay furnished or unfurnished apartments with hotel amenities. A furnished 1,000-square-foot one-bedroom that fits up to three guests clocks in at about $500 night, according to the website.

His photo slideshow of the sleek, contemporary project was soon sharply contrasted by the photos in Beck’s presentation, which depicted a scene more resemblant of a teenage sleepaway camp than an L.A. hotel. In one photo on the Podshare instagram, for example, roughly 40 young people huddle in the cramped space between the “pod” beds, listening to a long-haired musician play acoustic guitar.

Podshare is now working on its fifth L.A. location in Westwood. Its other locations are in Venice, Downtown’s Arts District, Los Feliz and Hollywood. The membership-based model allows — and encourages — customers to use any of the locations.

The so-called “social network with an address” has attracted a cult-like following, as evidenced by the 16 people who have tattood its logo on their own skin, which Podshare promotes on its website.

“We are taking pods and distributing them across the city of Los Angeles,” Beck told the audience. “We’re [connecting] the Eastside and Westside of L.A. at one affordable rate where people can live anywhere,” Beck said. The growing company even transformed a former medical marijuana facility into a Podshare — something the “city was very fond of,” Beck said.

The company seems to be looking to expand — and is soliciting landlords on its website. “Do you own commercial space with at least 12 ft ceilings in Los Angeles?,” an ad reads. “Regardless of the square footage, we may be interested in installing murphy pods!”

Beck, who had a stint with acting, said the system is perfect for those who audition in Hollywood early morning but live on the Westside. Martin, who served the moderator role between the two contrasting founders, quipped “Actors will go to [Beck] when auditioning,” but when they land the job, “they’ll go to Brian.”

“We’re feeding the system, one way or another,” Martin joked.

The audience was quick to point out potential downfalls of co-living, which panelists compared to hesitations about Airbnb and Uber when they first came onto the scene. (Ironically, both Podshare and Hollywood Proper are listed on Airbnb.)

A few individuals in the audience questioned the safety of living in bunkbeds with strangers and what sort of vetting process employees take for new long-term-stay guests. Beck responded by saying Podshare “asks a few questions” to potential newcomers, but said they don’t have time to run individual background checks on each one.

She pointed to the floor plans — pods stacked against the wall with open space in between, offering no privacy — as a safety net, arguing “this isn’t a good place to commit any sort of crime.”

From the latest issue: Foreign investors and developers pumped more than $8.28 billion into the commercial real estate landscape in Los Angeles County in the last two years, making L.A. one of the hottest markets for foreign capital in the U.S, according to an analysis of Real Capital Analytics data by The Real Deal.

Singapore and Qatar led the way, with more than $2 billion each, followed by Canada with $1.6 billion. And despite tighter capital controls in China, the country still ranks as one of the top foreign investors in the city, even though its buyers spent a bit less during this period than in the prior two years.

TRD’s analysis included investments by any foreign-owned firm that bought more than $50 million in real estate in the two years from June 1, 2015, through May 31, 2017, in L.A. County.

What makes L.A. so attractive to overseas buyers is its strong and stable fundamentals, experts said. “We have a tremendously powerful economy, and it’s diversified,” said Michael Zietsman, international director of JLL. “It’s by far the biggest economy in the western U.S.”

There’s also a dense population, people with spending capital, better yields compared to other top markets and job growth outpacing other areas of the country, said Joe Cesta, who leads CBRE’s capital markets group for Southern California and Hawaii and who is also the managing director for the Inland Empire. “Those are all the indicators that point to a strong, stable real estate market,” he said.

The L.A. industrial sector is particularly attractive to international investors for two reasons, said Cesta: the large population that the industrial base serves, and its location. 

“As goods come in from overseas, it’s logical to land here and then ship cross-country,” he said. “As e-commerce continues to grow, I think L.A. and its surrounding counties will continue to benefit from that and its strategic location and proximity to China.”

The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach were the two busiest seaports in the country in 2015 per the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Logistics, as we now call it, is the darling of the industry. Everybody wants to buy some industrial property,” Zietsman said. “Industrial cap rates are still going down,” he added, which indicates lower risk.

Overall, cap rates for commercial real estate in L.A. stabilized in the first half of 2017 compared to the second half of 2016, according to CBRE data. In addition to industrial cap rates tightening, office and multifamily sectors remained unchanged at 5.56 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively, while retail and hotel cap rates increased — with the retail rate climbing from 6.33 to 6.42 percent from Dec. 31, 2016, to June 30, 2017, and hotel cap rates increasing from 7 to 7.5 percent over the same period. The outlook for the second half of the year is continued stability.

As for any potential challenges to the influx of foreign capital, the EB-5 program is due to expire on Dec. 8. The program provides foreign investors with permanent residence in the U.S. in exchange for commercial investments of $1 million that create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs. Between 2010 and 2013, California ranked first in the nation for EB-5 investments, narrowly beating out New York, according to data from Invest in the USA, an EB-5 trade association. Interest in the program from overseas investors and domestic developers has grown rapidly since the Great Recession, when other sources of capital dried up. It especially encouraged development of hotels, noted Zietsman.

Other factors that could affect the international flow of capital to the U.S. include the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and the Trump administration’s proposed tax plan, said Cesta. “Then we’re also in real estate, which is cyclical,” he added. “Things get hot and things cool down. We don’t see that cooldown in the near future, but any one of those items could begin to soften the market.”

Biggest spenders and what they’re buying

Asian countries led investments, accounting for 42 percent of sales over $50 million to foreign-owned firms, according to TRD’s analysis.

“Look at some of the major developments in L.A. the last few years. Greenland USA developed the massive Metropolis Complex. Korean Airlines just built a hotel with offices and retail at Wilshire and Figueroa,” said Zietsman, referencing the Wilshire Grand Center, which opened in June and is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. “That’s Asian capital coming and completely changing the skyline in downtown.”

And while four European countries made the top 12, their share was only 14 percent of foreign investments above $50 million over the past two years.

“What [L.A.] lacks is many of the European investors,” Zietsman said. “They want modern buildings, built in the last 10 to 15 years at most. And we just don’t have many of those.”

Still, combined outlays from European buyers in the past two years surpassed the $1 billion mark.

Here’s a look at the top cross-border investments into the L.A. commercial market since June 2015.

Singapore: $2.26 billion

Despite retail’s recent woes, prime properties in that asset class remain attractive to overseas investors. Singapore firms made hefty retail transactions in L.A. in late 2015, purchasing a $1.38 billion interest in the Lakewood Center mall and $873.5 million in the Los Cerritos Center. Both purchases were made by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.

In addition, Asia’s biggest warehouse operator, Global Logistic Properties (GLP) — whose parent company was also Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund — acquired several warehouses both in L.A. proper and in the Inland Empire counties from 2015 through 2016. A Chinese consortium purchased GLP in July, however, for $11.6 billion.

Qatar: $2.08 billion

Qatar is betting big on L.A. office space. Since February 2016, the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA), which manages the oil-rich country’s wealth, has purchased several Blackstone office properties in L.A. and Santa Monica through a partnership with Douglas Emmett Inc. (DEI), a Santa Monica-based REIT.

The deals include $476.5 million for 10960 Wilshire Boulevard; $433.5 million for the Oppenheimer Tower at 10880 Wilshire Boulevard; $285 million for the Wilshire Palisades at 1299 Ocean Avenue; $271 million for the Westwood Center at 1100 Glendon Avenue; $168 million for the Tower at 10940 Wilshire Boulevard; $139.5 million for the Searise Office Tower at 233 Wilshire Boulevard; and $77 million for 429 Santa Monica Boulevard.

The partnership also spent $224.5 million for 12100 Wilshire Boulevard in July 2016, buying it from Hines.

And after this ranking’s May 31 cutoff date, DEI and QIA forked over roughly $188 million, or about $1,100 per square foot, for the 171,000-square-foot Class A building at 9665 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, again to the Blackstone Group.

Canada: $1.6 billion

The last of the billion dollar spenders in this group, Canada has long been one of the top cross-border investors into U.S. commercial real estate. Our neighbor to the north has made more than two dozen purchases in the L.A. region over the past two years, covering the industrial, office, apartment and hotel sectors, plus a development site — and looks poised to continue the spree, as Canadian investors have made additional office and industrial purchases since June.

“I think it’s two things. As the Canadians look at opportunity in their own market and across the world, they look at stability and yield,” said Cesta. “L.A., again, represents a very strong opportunity to place capital.”

Vancouver’s Onni Group spent nearly $450 million on six office purchases. The largest was $105 million to Tribune Media for the L.A. Times headquarters in September 2016. A year earlier, Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan Capital Partners (CPP) picked up the Pac Mutual tower for $200 million. The CPP Investment Board spent a combined $287.5 million on 10 industrial site purchases sold by GIC and GLP.

Canada’s June 2017 deals included $700 million for industrial space at 747 Warehouse Street by the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and Brookfield paid $440 million for the California Market Center office space at 110 East Ninth Street, according to reports.

France: $519 million

L.A. has been home to some record retail transactions in recent years, including Chanel shelling out $152 million in December 2015 for the shop at 400 Rodeo Drive it had been leasing. That worked out to $13,217 per square foot, a square-foot price record for retail space in California. But that record lasted just six months, until LVMH picked up the Bijan store down the block at 420 Rodeo Drive for $122 million, or $19,405 per square foot, in July 2016.

The biggest deal by a French investor, however, was the $245 million spent by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers in April 2016 for a 49 percent share in the Peoples Bank Building at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard.

South Korea: $472.1 million

Before its chairman was arrested at the end of December 2016 as part of a corruption scandal, South Korea’s National Pension Service — one of the largest pension funds in the world — purchased three properties that are part of the Runway Playa Vista mixed-use development located on the 12000 block of West Millennium Drive. The $472 million deal, completed in February 2016 through Invesco Real Estate, included $270.5 million for 217,000 square feet of retail space, $175.5 for 420 apartment units and $26 million for 33,000 square feet of office space in the newly completed complex.

Germany: $380.1 million

German investors have focused on the solid office space market with two major purchases over the past two years.

CBRE Global Investors sold its downtown headquarters at 400 South Hope Street in May 2016 for $319.3 million to a joint venture between PNC Financial Services and the Munich-based real estate fund manager GLL Real Estate. And in September 2015, Jamestown, the Atlanta-based arm of Jamestown US Immobilien GmbH, an investment firm in Cologne, Germany, picked up the Brunswig Square building at 360 E. Second Street for $60.8 million.

China: $311.1 million

Outlays from Chinese investors managed to secure the number seven spot on TRD’s list of cross-country deals in L.A., down from $339.6 million during the prior two-year period, a 2.5 percent drop.

Local experts don’t seem particularly worried about China’s new tighter foreign investment rules. At the first TRD Showcase & Forum held in L.A. in September, panelist Steve Silk of Eastdil Secured said that China continues to put a tremendous amount of money into U.S. real estate, but now the money will shift into things that will benefit the Chinese economy long term.

The biggest Chinese purchase within the two-year period of this ranking was the $156.6 million paid by Elite International Investment Fund and Future Land to AIG Global Real Estate for the Alhambra office building at 1000 South Fremont Avenue.

US OCG, the American arm of OCG China, spent $52.5 million in July 2016 for the LAX Holiday Inn, while Gemdale Corp., a Chinese real estate developer, dropped $51.3 million for office space at 1377 North Serrano Avenue in September 2015. Additional Chinese buyers in L.A. include Cindat Capital Management, Unionlife Insurance Company and Greenland Group.

Japan: $273.1 million

Japanese investors made only one purchase during the time frame TRD analyzed, but it was a major one: In December 2016, in its first U.S. deal, the Japanese conglomerate ASO Group purchased the Google-leased hangar and three surrounding buildings at 5865 South Campus Center Drive from a partnership between the Ratkovich Company and Penwood Real Estate Investment Management. EGW Asset Management represented ASO in the deal.

TRD reported at the time that ASO “wants to keep focusing on California.” Both JLL’s Zietsman and CBRE’s Cesta noted that they’ve also heard that Japanese investors want to increase their presence in L.A.

“There’s just not that many opportunities for them to get reasonable returns in Japan. It’s a closely held market,” said Zietsman. “If you own a major commercial property in Tokyo, or [anywhere in] Japan, you just don’t sell it. So investors are looking for diversification and slightly better returns than the domestic market.”

Added Cesta: “As far as industrial is related, we’re understanding that Japan is looking to make a larger entrance into the market. We’ve had some meetings with their large institutions, and they’re looking to allocate more funds to the U.S., specifically into
this region.”

Switzerland: $191.5 million

Europe’s famously neutral country has been steadily investing in office and retail space in the L.A. metro area. The largest purchases by a Swiss firm were for office properties at 2400 and 2350 Empire Avenue in Burbank for $46.2 million and $34.2 million, respectively. Switzerland’s UBS Realty Investors secured the properties from CBRE Global Investors in August 2015. According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, the buildings’ combined square footage is nearly 230,000, making for an average of $350 per square foot paid.

On the heels of that deal, UBS then picked up the office space at 9033 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills for $75.1 million from Archway Holdings in December 2015. Rounding out recent Swiss buys was the retail cinema space at 8540 Whittier Boulevard in Pico Rivera, purchased by UBS Realty from Krikorian Premier Theaters for $36 million in March 2016. UBS upgraded the space to the Cinépolis brand, and the location features reclining leather seats and 14 screens, including a 4DX auditorium.

Hong Kong: $83.4 million

Investors from this special administrative region of China have diversified their more than $83 million into L.A. with condominium, office and industrial purchases. San Francisco’s Pacific Eagle Holdings, whose parent company is the Hong Kong-based builder Great Eagle Holdings, paid $62 million to the Carlyle Group, the D.C.-based private equity firm, in September 2015 for the Villa Malibu rental community and converted it to the Cavalleri condominiums.

Downtown Properties, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based private equity real estate company Gaw Capital Partners, made two purchases: $11.5 million to Andrea Goodman in July 2015 for the office space at 1370 St. Andrews Place, and $9.9 million to the Chu 2001 Family Trust and East West Bank in March 2017 for the industrial space at 315 Aurora Street.

Thailand: $75 million

Capping off the Asian buyers in TRD’s analysis was the Kingdom of Thailand, with investor Thosapong Jaruthavee purchasing an 80 percent stake in Sunset Tower Hotel at 8358 Sunset Boulevard in June 2015. But this West Hollywood love affair didn’t last long; Jaruthavee sold his investment — which had appreciated to $100 million — to New York billionaire Len Blavatnik in June 2017, as the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

United Kingdom: $50 million

The $50 million purchase of a retail spot at 1437 Third Street, along the Santa Monica promenade, by the U.K.’s private equity firm Meyer Bergman in June 2015 rounded out TRD’s list. The 7,500-square-foot space currently houses a Converse shoe store.